A sacred oath
by Imperator45
Summary: "I swear to protect Earth and her colonies."That is an oath made by 75 children,75 children that were trained to serve Earth by becoming the best soldiers know in the history,and even throught that Master chief,AKA Spartan 117 is not in the same Universe anymore,he intend to fulfill this oath that he made so many years ago...No matter the price for it.
1. We did survive

**Hi,Its Imp45**

 **I'm actually writing this story as I've seen many of those recently (haloxmass effect crossover) and I told myself:**

 **You love Halo,**

 **You love Mass effect,**

 **You love writing stories,**

 **So, why should I not try a good crossover between two of those thing that I love^^.**

 **So, this story is a crossover Between the Halo universe and of the Mass effect universe, this will show Master Chief and Cortana arriving into the ME Universe and trying to find a reason to go on.**

 **Which will lead to a meeting with certain commander.**

 **This will take place a few weeks after the beginning of ME 2 and a few days after the planet Horizon and the meeting with Kaidan.**

 **How does a fiery commander brought back to life will act with a super soldier who has defeated death several times, you shall see it in this story (and many others on this site).**

 **Here is for you the first chapter of A sacred oath: We did survive.**

* * *

A sacred oath

Chapter 1

We did survive.

"It's been an honor serving with you, John."…

That's all…That all that John-117, Aka the Master chief remembered hearing, before a bright light made him fall into a state of unconsciousness. Right after boarding the UNSC frigate _Forward into dawn_ , in a dashing hope the survive the destruction of the Ark.

Destruction, that he has himself orchestrated…Orchestrated with the goal to win a war, a war that has been during for nearly three decades. A war that has decimated billions of human lives. But during all this time he has never forgotten the oath that he did swear, him, alongside of 74 other children in a military camp on situated on a planet that is now glassed.

" _ **I swore to protect Earth and her colonies."**_

But now at this moment he could only feel pain and doubt, many question running thought his already tortured mind…

But like many time before, a certain voice came to comfort him, and saved him from this darkness.

"Chief! Can you hear me?"

That simple question was enough to brought him back among the livings ones, and opened his eyes to observe his environment, he instantly turned on his suit's outer lights, illuminating the darkness around him.

"I thought I'd lost you too."

He couldn't help but smiled at his friend voice before now fully taking the situation he was in.

He was still in the _Dawn_ , but the gravity wasn't there anymore, which meant that he was still in space and that the gravity system of the ship was down or at least greatly damaged.

He grabbed a rifle who was floating near him, a recognized it, it was on his back during his travel toward the ship on the warthog, he quickly checked the deadly weapon and was satisfied to see no damage on it, alongside a pretty 32 marked on the rear of the assault rifle.

John put it back on his back and advanced toward an opening that led into space.

"What happened?" he asked the AI as reached the end of the ship, with below him the infinite view of space.

"I'm not sure," She replied. "When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces… did a number on the Ark. The portal couldn't sustain itself. We made it through just as it collapsed."

"Some of us made it."

The soldier checked out the once almighty warship, it has been cut in half in a almost clean cut from where the portal collapsed.

Seeing the damage inflicted to the frigate, both Cortana and he knew that it would need more that a few repairs to make the ship fly-ready again.

Seeing no other option,117 began to move slowly toward the cryo-pods, knowing that it was his only chance to survive during this _odyssey_ as this ship certainly didn't had enough of food and water for him to survive more than two months.

And that's what spartan do.

Survive.

As he reached the place of the ship he was interested in, he removed the chip containing his dear friend and put it in a terminal, and so letting Cortana taking control of the ship…Or what was left of it.

"But you did it. Truth and the Covenant... The Flood... It's finished."

Those were more than powerful to him, as they confirmed that they did manage to succeed in this impossible mission that is:

To win this impossible to win war.

"It's finished," he said quietly, as if he couldn't imagine a world where he didn't have to kill every alien every day for and his species to survive.

That last thought brought back memories of some heroes of this who deserved to see its end but didn't make it.

Keyes, Jacob and Miranda, Johnson, Linda, Fred…Sam. He shook his head in a vain attempt to chase those thought away before going to a cryogenic pod, he locked his trusty MA5C into the rack beside the tube, 117 then positioned himself into the tube while listening to the blue synthetic girl.

"I'll drop a beacon, but it will be awhile before anyone finds us… years even."

The master chief glanced one more time toward her, knowing that she had the sad part of the job…She had to wait.

"I'll miss you," she added, sadness in her too human voice.

"Wake me, when you need me."

This sentence made a smile spread on the AI holographic face as she watched her friend fall in an iced sleep.

As her protector was finally really asleep, she did as she said earlier and activated the ship beacon, hopping to be found really rapidly.

As she stood on a pedestal, her holographic form sends a glare toward her hand.

Three years until the first stage of rampancy.

And with that she returned on her task to check everything on this ship that could be useful to her and her spartan.

* * *

 **Here it is, first chapter. Not very long but we must begin somewhere so…**

 **I know very well that Fred-104 and Linda-058 aren't dead but at the moment of Halo 3 the are missing in action, which mean that John doesn't know that they are still alive.**

 **Well, I do hope that you will not be disappointed with this story,only future and comments will tell…**

 **Imp45 out.**


	2. Four months and we're still alive

**Thank you each of you for your support!**

 **support in form of comments, views, favorites and follow put on this stories in less than one day.**

 **Now I will do every for you in not getting disappointed by this story.**

 **I will do my best so you can appreciate it on each update.**

 **And if something feels wrong please tell me so I can fix.**

 **Thank you again for this trust that ypu are placing in this story.**

 **Here is the second chapter from _A sacred oath_.**

 **Four months and we're still alive**

 **Cordially Imp45**

* * *

 **Chapter 2:Four months and we're still alive**

Four months…It has been four damn months since the slip space jump. And now Cortana was getting more disturbed by every nanosecond passing.

After being able to repair crudely some vitals system of the _Forward into dawn_ , she began scanning for any kind transmissions to catch and communicate with. The first three week, she kept doing for every second of every day in hope of reaching any source of emitting faction to contact them for getting a ride back home.

It didn't matter if it was from UNSC, Independents human faction allied with the UEG, the covenant separatist led by the arbiter, or any form of life that didn't felled like shooting their ship at first sight.

Then it happened.

On the 26th day since the failed jump, she finally received it, a signal coming from a ship. Finally, someone could save her, and the strong caveman that served as her best friend and who was actually resting in a fridge.

They could finally get back home and hopefully save her from the rampancy stage who would surely come for her one day…

Instead, she cut down her beacon and ceased any transmission coming from their half of ship.

Something made her stop in trying to contact this unknown ship.

This reason was simple :

It was using a damn unknown language.

Cortana cursed her bad luck as it seemed that this damn portal, additionally of failing in bringing them back on earth made them jump into a unknown part of the galaxy where a undiscovered specie was living.

Her now tops priorities were now of avoiding capture.

After all, if she was captured by an enemy ship all of UNSC controlled space was in danger as the Human-Covenant-Flood war let mankind in a pretty weak situation.

So for two weeks she stopped emitting but kept her ears wide opens in search of any information on those newcomers.

Unfortunately for her, her range of spying was rather limited by the state of her ship, luckily for her, the _Dawn_ did possess several scouting probe in working condition.

She quickly dispatched two of them in hope of gaining more DATA to analyze, and when the probe came back, she certainly was well rewarded.

And so, during a month she kept sending more probes, catching more and more information on this strange place.

The strange place being the good old Milky Way…But not the one she was used to.

She spend all of her time began to decipher every type of data transmissions that landed in her hands. Feat not as incredible as their inscription were so easy to break that any kind of AI or engineer of the UNSC could certainly break them. Practically an Unggoy game… No, maybe not that far.

What really disturbed her was the content of the data obtained, as according to them, Mankind did exist…But in according to those files, they were in 2185 instead of 2553.

Furthermore, apparently, Humanity was part of a coalition of alien's government, the _Citadel council_.

An council, formed by three top races, Asari ,Galarian and Turian. Those three were the head of this collectivity of species telling them what they had the right of doing, how and when.

That is until Mankind appeared and managed to get a seat in this council in less of fifty years, an unrecorded feat.

But as the checked every bit of the history of this humanity who had like any other species based their technology from a dead specie one, something came and saddened Cortana in this.

Those humans were…Push overs.

From where she and John come from, no humans would have kneeled to any aliens. Never the UNSC would have allowed a foreign power to rule over its citizens, it would have fought and found a way to win. But no, there, humans and many others species just obeyed to the council in hope of not being declared enemy of the citadel.

Even the recently acquired seat did little to improve the human's right in this galaxy. Hell, even the official human military had a quota of warship, dreadnaught that they aren't authorized to exceed under the threat of becoming an enemy of the citadel.

UNSC agreeing with a quota of cruiser…Never happening.

Speaking of ship she could see some drastic difference between the two humanity, those from the Alliance were faster and more manœvrable but the ones from UNSC a lot more powerful and harder to break.

And the more the read from this citadel council, the more she was disappointed in it.

But with nothing else to do for now, she kept reading, checking and analyzing in hope to find something in this sea of files that could help them in their journey to home.

It was on the 97th days since the jump that the legendary luck of her partner in crime seemed to have found them again this strange universe.

While that she was comparing the MA5C and the Avenger Mk1 in a virtual simulation one of her probe came back with a neck package of data, and it contained something of very interesting.

It seemed that the probe managed to pick in a distance, a slow moving large object. It seemed too big to be a spaceship coming from one of the know citadel council, but moved by necessity and curiosity, cortana send two of her probes back there.

And when they came back, they did found something of very interesting.

An abandoned shipyard.

The exotic architecture it certainly wasn't human made. After comparing with several outlines coming from different governments database and come to the conclusion that this station was from Quarian origin. Which greatly surprised her as the migrant fleet desperately needed such a shipyard to repair and maintain its ship.

A station like this would considerably help the Quarian people in their quest of survive, which planted the idea that this station could be older that it seemed. On the pictures taken by the probes, it seemed that it had took some damages caused by mass effect weapon.

 _"Maybe that it's from the Morning war."_ This war worried Cortana, as an AI she was branded as a menace to the galactic security according to the council. She could understand the Quarian aversion to the AIs as the Geths driven them out their homeworld, she knew herself that if her humans creators had lost their dear _Earth_ , they would do anything to get it back, no matter how many colony they had.

But as the same time, she couldn't really put the blame on the Geths. They had become sapiens being and acted as it. And it seemed that they didn't want to die.

As she finished checking the newly acquired data, she elaborated a new course of action. If this shipyard was still functional, then they surely could use it to repair the _Forward into dawn_. Which who greatly help their percentage of survival.

But first, she needed the approval of the only true living being in this ship. Cortana checked the vitals of her favorite human being before sending the necessaries order to the giant ice cube box and was pleased as she saw it opening.

As the door opened, 117 quickly checked his surrounding, memories from before sleeping coming back to his awaking brain. He slowly got up and floated toward the nearest terminal where a holographic smiling Cortana stand waiting for him.

"Cortana? What going on? Did the USNC found us?"

"Well chief, I've got so many things to tell, so first you may would like to refill you air tank as it's going to take some time."

* * *

Sitting in his chair with a cigarette held in his fingers, the Illusive Man stared at the sun that was actually dying behind the observation windows of his office at the Cerberus headquarter, the station Cronus.

He brought a half empty glass of American bourbon to his lips and took two good sips. He was actually quite nervous, the last report that he got from Miranda Lawson indicated that the project Lazarus was almost over , which meant only one thing:

Jane Shephard was soon going back into the land of the livings and will fight against the galaxy number one threat…The Reapers.

The rapport from Miranda told him that the commander should wake up in a few days at most. There, once the mighty biotic would be awakened, Cerberus would give her every tool that she needed to accomplish her mission of finding out who is behind the abduction of the human's colonies and protect mankind against the reaper threat.

And now, even if every was going smoothly just like planned, TIM knew that they hadn't the right to make any mistakes .It has took Cerberus two years to bring Shepard back, and they was no way that if the finished in the same state that before, they could bring her again on time.

Jane Shephard was in his book Humanity best hope in this war that was surely coming, even if the Citadel Council and the Alliance did everything that they could to make believe that the Reapers were a fake threat.

Sovereign, just a Geth super-dreadnaught they said, they even had dared to say that Shepard was paranoid and under a lot of stress…At her own funeral.

And the Alliance did nothing to deny that, ready to sacrifice their best element so that the Council is happy with them and get a pat on their head.

The councilor Anderson him fought bravely in this nightmare called politics to protect his late protégé from her enemies, and did manage to protect her name to be furthermore soiled.

Cerberus Intel showed him too that several high ranking officers did take the Reaper seriously, however, each time that one of them did make too much noise, they were dishonorably discharged.

Some of them even had _accidents_ in suspicious way.

But in the end he did manage to recruit some who were willing to fight for Humanity.

The Illusive Man sighed to this, but then he remembered the vow that he made to himself the day he founded Cerberus.

 _"I swear to protect Mankind against any threat, by any mean that I judge necessary."_

And with the Reaper approaching, he would do anything in his power to protect the humans...Even if they didn't want to.

* * *

Cortana watched John-117 as he was standing near the end of the cut ship, before him, still the deep Infinite ocean that is space. Cortana was quite worried about what John might do, she told him everything that she learned while he was busy sleeping and had not said a single word since she finished.

She knew that he was strong, physically and mentally but still, he was a human being, and every human being could break, and now she feared that he was near the breaking point.

Her thoughts were stopped when the grave voice of the massive man finally reached her.

"Cortana."

"Yes, Chief?"

"Do we have any ship we could use here? Pelican and Longsword?"

"Yes, the hangar 3 and 4 are still here, the 3 contains four longsword in top condition, and the 4 has 9 Pelicans and eight of them in flying condition. The ninth is damaged but could be repaired if we have enough of resources."

The Spartan acknowledged her answers by a short nod, he began to move back toward his cryo-pod and stopped right before it.

There he grabbed the MA5C who was still waiting on the rack, the day it would be used again alien and put it on his back.

"I agree."

To this, Cortana gave him a confused look.

"I agree with your plan, we shall go to this shipyard. The repair of the Dawn must be our number one priority, and from what you told me, i don't think that the first owner will reclaim this station anytime soon, so let's use it."Cortana smiled to her partner resolution in this new jouney who seemed as uncertain that the previous ones.

"Ah, perfect, then, I will power the main reactor of the Dawn, we still have enough of power to take us there."

"How long until we get there?" The massive man began to go toward one of the storage room to get some equipments for the incoming mission.

"I calculated that we should be there in 9 days, 7 hours and 16 minutes if we don't meet any troubles. But by knowing how our luck works…"

As the Master Chief was opening a door that led to the armory Cortana spectral voice stopped him.

"Not so fast warrior, you didn't eat anything for a too long time, go to the mess grab some foods then follow me, there are some rooms in this ship that are still with pressure and you will be able to remove that helmet of yours."

 **End of the second chapter:Four months and we're still alive**

* * *

 **Here it is the second chapter.**

 **The real next one shall come before the end of the next week and our commander will get her begining in there^^.  
**

 **I do know that it's still pretty short but the must we advance in the story, the more in length the chapter will get.**

 **Thank you again for the reviews and the favorites and follows; it is what makes the story going on. ^^**

 **And English is not my first language, if someone wanted to be my corrector, it would certainly help (I'm sure that this chapter is full of grammatical mistakes).**

 **Thank you very much for reading this story**

 **Imp45 out.**

 **Oh i did post a poll on my profile,if you have some time to spare check it out.**


	3. Shipyard, Awakening and a new life

**A sacred oath chapter 3:** _Shipyard_ _, Awakening and a new life._

 **Hi everybody still alive?... Well I can't really hear you so let's just pretend that you are!**

 **I would really like to thank a brave man who has managed to correct the syntax of this story, it is because of him that you can read this chapter today.**

 **A big thank for my beta-reader:** _gaara king of the sand_

 **And I thank you, reader for keeping to to read this story and following it!**

 **And a special thank for the comments that will help to** **improve** **that story! (** _ **Particularly this Guest who explained more about how the relays and ships worked in ME.)**_

 **And yes, Shepard and Chief will meet, not now but they will.**

 **And Yes, there will be some romances in this story…**

 **Here come the third chapter from** _ **A sacred oath:**_ Shipyard, Awakening and a new life.

* * *

Beep,beep,beep,beep…

 _"Wha-What is that sound?"_ Jane Shepard tried to open her eyes but didn't succeed in this task. Luckily for her, her ears seemed to be in a functional state as she heard.

"There. On the monitor. Something's wrong."

 _"Monitor?!Am I in a hospital?"_

"She's reacting to outside stimuli. Showing an awareness of her surroundings."

That last sentence made her try again to open up her eyes, however this time, she did succeed. A white light and a dark-haired woman for first sight.

"Oh my god, Miranda. I think she's waking up."

"Damn it, Wilson! She's not ready yet. Give her the sedative!"

 _"A sedative?!"_ She wouldn't mind going back to sleep, she was soooo tired.

 _"But I have so many questions to ask? Where am i?"_

"Shepard! -Don't try to move."

"Just lie still. Try to stay calm."

 _"No!I want to know where I am…Where is Kaidan…Garrus…Tali…Joker…?"_ This name unclenched a shock through her whole body as she remembered what happened!

 _"I…died…I died alone in space."_

"Heart rate still climbing. Brain activity is off the charts."

"Stats pushing into the red zone. It's not working!"

"Another dose. Now!"

"Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range."

"That was too close. We almost lost her."

Those words did send a shiver right through her spine…She didn't wanted to die again.

"I told you your estimates were off. Run the numbers again."

As she felt her eyelids fall back and the sounds blurred again, covering the two others humans, one last question came through her mind.

 _"I died alone in space…So why am I here?"_

Then she was resting again.

* * *

"We will arrive within the shipyard perimeter in twenty minutes Chief, go take the Pelican H-09 and go there, i will stop the _Dawn_ at three hundred kilometers from it."

Chief nodded to his holographic friend before going toward the hangar number four where his ride was waiting for him.

He didn't pass the nines days, waiting around and doing nothing, instead he helped Cortana doing some primary reparations to the ship. They had been able to restore pressure into some part of the warship, allowing him to move by walking instead of moving around while floating weightless in space.

He did use that time to train and exercise too, readying his body after four months of rest did a lot of good to him, both physically and mentally.

After all, Spartans were made to fight, not rest.

As he reached the Pelican, he checked it one last time to be sure, even thought there was no use for it of it as he already did it 14 times before but he never liked risk.

He entered the craft and installed himself on the pilot seat in the cabin he quickly turned the machine on and Cortana's voice entered through his inner com:

"Okay Chief, I've began to decelerate, the _Dawn_ shall be in position in ten minutes, I sense no transmission of activity from this station, enter inside, go the main control room to insert my sub-program, it will allow me to take over this station and put it under our control, after that we shall be able to repair the _Forward into dawn_ in a more effective manner."

"Roger that Cortana, open the hangar bay, I shall leave immediately."

"Understood Spartan, don't do anything of reckless for once." The soldier smiled to his friend rant and began to put the mighty metal bird in the airs.

* * *

"You are only 10km away from the station Chief!"

"I read that Cortana." As the warrior got closer, he could verify the data sent by the probe during his stay on the _"_ _Dawn "_ about the shipyard. And at first glance it seemed that they were right.

 _"It's …Big."_ The station was 2.2 Kilometers in height, and during all of it, several levels of it was of several hundred wide, each of them full of engineer drones made to create and repair spaceships."Cortana, do you receive that?" Asked 117.

"Yes, Chief. It does seem that there are still some ships docked into the station. Can you go to the other side of the station? I would like to inspect the damage that it received."

With those words, the Spartan drove the Pelican to the other side, where the station has been attacked. He could see some craters, coming from a local weapon, but the damages didn't seem too big to destroy the station or make it useless.

Cortana kept looking at the station before giving her opinion.

"Hmm, it seems to be a summation shot…I suspect the Geths , the hole look like it was here for only a few century, which means that it could have been fired at during the morning war."

"Why do you think it to be a summation shot? The station has been stricken, not intentionally avoided."

"Normally I would agree with you, but from the data that I got from the probes, it looks like when this place was hit it wasn't personal. They shot only once."

The meaning of those word slowly came to the human.

"Only once? And in a non-vital part of the shipyard? Why didn't they keep shooting? It does seem like the Geth possess a good firepower. And Quarians are their enemies. If they destroyed the station with thousands of Quarians aboard, they would have gained a big advantage in this war." Cortana stayed silent for a few seconds before finally giving her answer.

"Maybe…Maybe that they didn't want to kill them. Maybe that they just wanted them to leave."

John kept advancing the Pelican closer to the station while thinking about that.

 _"The Quarians wanted to destroy_ _all of them; however, they didn't want the same fate for their creators. They just wanted to live. Just like for us and the Covenants, we just wanted to live…"_

Right now, 117 felt a great sympathy to those synthetics being.

"Chef, I found an open bay. Big enough for you to land the Pelican. Follow the tracker, then go to the station, if you can upload me to the main control then we will gain a precious advantage in its place." He nodded and began to lead the aircraft toward the door of their new home.

* * *

"She woke up?"

"Yes, sir. But we hadn't finished all of the diagnostics, furthermore we haven't put the control implant and-"

 **"Miranda!-"** TIM Cut Miranda off"-I did tell you that I 'don't want an implant on her."

"But sir, I must insist that-"

"Shepard didn't defeated Saren, Geths, Sovereign or any others criminals that had the bad luck to run into her because she was under control. But because of her willpower and determination. She is a free spirit, and everything to try to tame this spirit would only affect her efficiency when we need it the most." He took a long drag of his cigarette as his shiny eyes met those of the holographic form oh Miranda.

"Sir, like you said, she doesn't really like criminals, which is exactly what we are to the rest of the galaxy. I don't think that she will really be pleased to work with us."

He drank a good part of his drink before responding.

"She is smart…She may not like Cerberus but she will see that with the inactivity from the Alliance and of the Council that we are her best option if she wants to protect humanity and retrieve all those colonists. Furthermore, we are the only one worrying about the Reapers return…And they are probably not that far by now…"

It seemed like Miranda wanted to interject some more but decided against it and agreed with a small nod.

"Very well, I shall inform you if anything else happen." And she cut down the communication with her employer.

The Illusive Man sighed gravely to this and dragged his smoke enough to finish it; he quickly discarded it into the ashtray and grabbed another one.

As he ignited it, an only thought passed:

 _"It seem like my days will be more agitated."_

* * *

"Its good Cortana, the Pelican is docked."

"Very well, Chief. Now grab some weapons and check this station. I didn't detect any life sign but we never know."

"Roger." He got up from the pilot's seat and go to the weapons rack.

He quickly checked the weapon on the rack and only found interesting choices:

 _Assault rifle MA5C_

 _Shotgun M90A CAWS_

 _Battle rifle BR55HB SR_

 _Carbine M395 DMR_

 _Sniper rifle SRS 99D AM_

 _Handgun Pistol M6G_

And of course, the impossible to miss _fragment grenade M HE-DP._

Those weapons were the standards for almost every UNSC battle group near the end of the war, each of them were the top product of a "specie" (species) determined to survive extinction.

 _"Let's see, it's a station so a sniper rifle shouldn't be needed, but a DMR could be useful for medium to long range in case if something go wrong…However the MA5C…I'm not sure. I don't really know how their barrier responds to bullet and if my assault rifle has enough of power to break them. However very little things can stand a shotgun that fire 8 Gauge Shell."_

Preferring to be wise, the Spartan grabbed the MA from his back and put it against the rack, and then he placed the DMR there instead.

 _"I will take the Pistol too, just in case .I do not really like having more than two weapons on me but in an unknown environment, it can save a life."_ He put the pistol to his hips, grabbed alongside four grenades before going to the back door.

He grabbed the powerful shotgun, kept it in one hand before reaching for the lever connecting to the door-

"Cortana, I'm heading outside…Now!"

-and pulled it down.

* * *

"Keep going straight ahead, Chief, and then on your left, you should see stairs, go up!"

"Roger that Cortana." The Spartan, still holding the killing-alien-shotgun moved quickly but in a quiet way through the different levels of the station, he checked every corridor, every turn and every rooms to be sure of not getting backstabbed.

He was already there for 20 minutes and he did find some good things for the Dawn he also found an armory, a refectory, and several ships in a bay that looked to be in good condition.

"Cortana?"

"Yes John?"

"Why didn't the Geth take over this station? It may not be the greatest, but it could have helped them to secure their space."

"I don't have much information on them, but I do suspect that it is because they simply didn't need it. Several Reports from the STG say that they have built their own stations, probably of a better quality than this one."

Seems logic; they didn't want any dead weight in their military defense.

As he reached the end of the stair case he saw something on the right. He quickly analyzed it before telling Cortana.

"Cortana, there are two bodies, seem like they are dead." He kneeled beside the formers living being and studied them.

It was two Quarians, apparently both genders, and in a space suit. The male was wrapped in the arms of his maybe mate; a long piece of an unknown metal stuck into his abdomen, the woman had several wounds on her left side, but it seemed that it was her who put them in this position.

"It seems that the male has been gravely wounded, the female tried to drag him to safety but he died on the way, she herself was pretty wounded and choose to rest."

"Maybe lovers…Or even brother and sister. Well at least they don't suffer anymore."Suggested the AI

"Yes…"The soldier got up and began to walk away from the two Quarians,but not before giving a last glance to the fallen couple.

 _"How many humans died in a similar way during the war? Millions? Billions? The Quarians deserved to be punished for their attempt at genocide of sapiens being. But their species doesn't deserve to suffer and be treated like that."_

He kept walking during few moments when he came face to face to a closed door. He tried to open it by pushing the button an alien text on the holographic panel.

"Cortana! Can you translate it?"

"Of course, who are you taking me for?"

"Cortana…"

"Right, right, big guy. I give you that…right now."

"So?"

"It says: Door locked! Pressure leak inside! "It seems that we are in the area that has been hit by the Geths Chief. I should be able to unlock it then lock it back again after you go through but you will have to hurry."

"No worry Cortana, I'll do it."

"Ok, opening in 3…2…1…0."

Air was aspired by the empty room as soon as the gray doors opened. Chief managed to keep his ground and advanced slowly on the floor, but as he was through the doors, a certain AI closed them again. As soon that happened, the soldier felt zero gravity and looked up to find himself face to face with a quarian…Well, more of half of a quarian. The poor guy had all of the lower part of his body gone and floated lifeless in this room.

He was a little surprised but pushed the feeling aside as he examined the room he was in, it was a very big one, he could surely fit four Scorpion tanks on the floor and three Pelican to reach the ceiling. On the same ceiling a giant window that showed the black sea of space. And on the upside of it a hole of three meters of diameters that connected to the emptiness of space

"You're right Cortana. It is here that the Geth Attacked. What is this room?"

"It seems to be the Observation deck. They were at the first line of sight when they were shoot at and had the luck to see it coming."

"Ok."

"Now if this shipyard does follow correctly the same pattern of the others ones made by Quarians hands, then you shouldn't be that far from the control room. I send you a tracker, if everything is going smoothly, you'll be there in five minutes."

The man readied his weapon before responding:

"Since when do our missions go smoothly?"

* * *

It did seem that for once, that the mission was turning out to be smooth. As expected several Quarian corpses were found and another locked pressure door, he was now standing right before the locked door that led to the main room.

"Hmm, it look like they tripled the security of this door before leaving, it should take me a little longer than for the others."

"How much time?"

"About ten seconds." The Spartan rolled his eyes to this, which made the AI respond with a small laugh.

* * *

 _10 second later_

* * *

The door opened, revealing a pitch black room, with the warrior helmet as the only source of light.

"Right there Chief, put the program in."

The Spartan advanced and met a large panel of control, it was several meters wide and it certainly contained everything that it needed to control and secures the station.

He saw a holographic panel and put his right hand on it, a second after, every sub-programs implanted let Cotana take the control over the station.

A hologram of the AI appeared.

"Whoa, it worked. I'm taking control of the shipyard. Over 63% under my command!"

"And the Dawn?"

"I'm still in control of it…Partially, my sub that I implanted there allows me to control only the main systems but it's a so it should be enough for now."

"Good, what about the rest of the station?"

"I am in charge of 96% of it. Some systems doesn't responds, it seem that the hit and time did more damage than expected. But we shall be able to repair them and take over the entire site ." The AI smiled to her partner, gaining control will certainly increase their percentage of survival.

"And the Dawn, will we be able to repair it?"

Cortana, smile tuned down at this.

"Well, we can repair it, even upgrade it…But…We will need Titanium…And in a great quantity."

The Spartan shoulder felled down but only for a nanosecond, he may do not know where to get Titanium but he would find out.

"Chief!" He glanced back to Cortana, a blue light emitted on one of the panel before being focally shot down by the AI.

"Something happened. When I reactived the main system of the station, a signal has been sent. "

"Sent! To who? The Quarians?"

"Yes. But I 'don't think that they will receive it. The frequency it has been broadcasting hasn't been used in centuries, I do believe them to not use it any, but just to be safe, we should move the station."

"To move the station? How?"

"Like that!" She snapped her holographic fingers and suddenly light came back into the room, and sound came from all around him, signifying the return of power going to the station. John approached the observation windows and soon so the entire shipyard illuminating itself.

"Chief, I will dock the Dawn to the station, I will need your help, then we will use her reactor to keep the station active until it can be independent again, do you agree to this for now?"

The soldier stared right at her before responding:

"Of course, Cortana,I trust you."

The AI smiled to her human.

"Very well then. First we shall-."

"Stop right there Cortana.

"What going on Chief?" She asked intrigued by the reason he had to interrupt her.

"Before we start working on the _Forward into_ dawn and this station, we must do something."

"And this something is?" She asked with a curious and teasing voice.

"That!" The Spartan grabbed something from a pouch on his back and showed it to Cortana. When she saw what it was, a small smile appeared on her face.

Four minutes later, the duo left the room, who still had, attached to a wall, a flag with a mighty bird protecting a planet, and before this planet, four simple words: UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND.

 _ **This shipyard, now belonged to the UNSC.**_

* * *

"And, you are sure of what happened?"

Two young Quarian shivered to the question posed by their officer, the captain _Zola de'aresh Vaas_ _Tiy delaziyaa_ , main officer of the Quarian ship _Tiy delaziyaa_. Ship tasked of communication, research of the missing, collect of resources and recon in unknown territory.

Zola, was perplexed by what his two subordinates just told him, an ancient move shipyard that hadn't been seen or heard from just started transmitting for a few seconds before being cut down. He glanced briefly to his subordinates before going back to his computer, where the data that they had sent him earlier seemed to confirm their story.

 _"Damn, an active shipyard station… It could be very useful to the fleet. After all every one of our ship are crumbling down."_ He sends a quick glance to his small observation window situated on the left side of his office. The neighboring ship, the _Brave rider_ , couldn't last another ten years, and for his own ship, it would maybe be fifty to sixty.

 _"A possibility to get brand new ships would be wonderful…But this shipyard…_ _ **The Keelay yee sorna.**_ _It has been floating in space for three hundred years, without any maintenance. I read there that it has been built only six years before the Geth Uprising, maybe that we can still manage to salvage some part of it or some resources. "_ He glanced back to his subordinates who were still as nervous.

"Did you tell anyone else about this?"

They looked at each other before answering:

"No sir, we thought that maybe it was a mistake and wanted to confirm it with you first."

Responded the Quarian on the left, a young female who came back from her pilgrimage not even a year ago.

"Good, we wouldn't want to make a bad surprise to the fleet, don't we?"

They shook their heads.

"Very well, then I will ask to keep this to yourself for now. Tomorrow I must go to my superiors to present my monthly report. Then I shall go there myself to see if it is true. But as said earlier, I don't want to make fakes hopes. So not a word of this, understood?"

 **"Yes, my captain".**

"Very well, I shall contact you before I leave. Any question?"

"No captain, not a single one." Exclaimed the male, he was he has served Zola for a few years now and totally trusted his superior.

"Good, now go, you're dismissed."

The two youngsters Salutes before going back to their works. Meanwhile, a certain captain was readying for his travel that could bring back a better future for the migrant fleet.

End of the third chapter Shipyard, Awakening and a new hope.

Here is the end of the third chapter from _A sacred oath:_ _Shipyard, Awakening and a new life._

* * *

 **Thanks again to my Beta reader, the royal:** **gaara king of the sand**

 **He had the courage to correct my text, and with the numbers of error it must have been hard.**

 **Thank you, readers, for all yours support, in follows, favorites, comment and by the views, that keep this story going on^^.**

 **The fourth chapter should be released in 7-15 days, I hope to see again^^.**

 **And don't forget about the** _ **poll**_ **on my profile, apparently Cerberus is more liked than what I thought. (I would have followed him; the Council is annoying).**


	4. New fight,new allies

**Here it is…The fourth chapter...Quite late isn't it?**

 **I am very sorry for the delay, I have been quite busy, first anniversaries in the family, Christmas, the New year's,9gag, Work, Family troubles,9gag then laziness…All of this combined is not a good thing to keep writing.**

 **Furthermore, must say that I didn't really been very nice to my Beta Reader _,_** ** _gaara king of the sand ,_ I contacted him only last week for the updates, without taking the time to talk about of the story with him. Which isn't very…nice.**

 **So, he still had corrected this story and it is now readable.**

 **And the chapters are now becoming longer, it was one of the first thing that has been mentioned to me that they were too short.**

 **I hope that you will enjoy it, just like you enjoyed the previous chapters**

 **So here we are...**

 **The sacred oath, chapter 4:** **New fight, news allies.**

...

* * *

...

 _Former Quarian Shipyard Tiy delaziyaa_

 _Now belonging to the United Nations Space Command (UNSC)_

 _Near the planet Arh-h458_

"A little more to the left Chief …And-That's good, you can turn off the blowtorch and put it away now."

"Understood." He did what instructed, and put the tool in a toolbox that was lying beside him.

It has been four days since they took control of the shipyard and they did manage to do some good work on it. They had been able to restore pressure in almost every part of the station, and to repair all of the main systems, which gave to Cortana 98% of control, leaving only the unrepaired places out of control.

And just as Cortana predicted, the takeover to the station allowed them to gain a great flexibility. After docking the Dawn, Cortana began to use the maintenance drones to repair the ship. The station, by luck seemed to possess a good stock of Titanium, Cortana using machines and others metals from the station supply manage to create Titanium-A, which composed the armor plates used by all of the ship belonging to the UNSC. But even if they were lucky to have found those resources, it wouldn't be enough to restore this ship in its full integrity.

When they were cut down by the portal they had 61% of the ship left with them, and with the station local supply they should be able to put it to 76% or 78%.And additionally, of the repairs, Cortana continued to send probe to spy on the Galactic community.

This allowed them to keep an eye on potential enemies, while the repairing is still underway. They were after all in a delicate situation.

If a group with hostile intention found them, they had almost no way to fight back.117 had begun to check on their weapon and ammunition stock, and was pleased to see that even if they couldn't fight in space, they could still show their power on the ground.

The Forward unto Dawn had been over-packed with every weapon and their ammo that the UNSC could find in preparation of the Ark assault, and even if the human ground force did take a part of it, they still had enough of guns to form a battalion.

The best fact about the Forward unto Dawn, is a Charon-class light frigate, a type of frigate designed to deploy and support troops rather than fleet support.

Furthermore, before leaving Earth for the fight, the Elites and the Humans, in a show of good will for their newly formed alliance preceded to an exchange of weapons, giving to the betrayed aliens humans firearms while that the UNSC received quite a package of plasma weapons.

And a majority of these were still in the Dawn.

And it is without forgetting weapons that were stocked into the shipyard armory, and once restored, it would be about 300 mass-effect guns ready for use.

And even if they were about three hundred year's old's they could still be in use for study or battle.

As Chief began to walk toward the space station canteen to eat some of the UNSC rations, he couldn't help but worry about Cortana, feeling that she was actually hiding something to him, which wasn't like her.

When she wasn't busy repairing the station and the warship she kept sending probes to gain knowledge on this galaxy.

But two days ago, when one of the probes came back with a new package of data, right after she began to analyze this began to act strangely about her finding.

Something about: Reapers, Shepard, Alliance and destructions.

This wasn't really reassuring to him.

He didn't ask Cortana about as he trusted her, and knew that if it was really important that she would tell him about it.

So, it's with a determined pace that he got ready to eat some wonderful military rations.

...

* * *

...

Cortana didn't know what to do after gaining those information's.

At first, she just wanted to know more about mankind gaining its seat on the Citadel Council and quickly learned of the reason for it.

It was Humanity quick action against a super Geth dreadnought that had launched a massive attack on the Citadel.

As the Flagship of the Citadel, the Destiny Ascension was heavily damaged by the Geths forces, the Alliance fleet choose to fight and protect the giant ship even though they got much causality, resulting in the saving of the three councilors and of ten thousand galactic citizens.

Then finally, the main ship of the Geth has been destroyed by the remaining galactic and alliance force, securing the victory for the Council and its allies.

And all of this wouldn't have been possible without a certain person, a human…

A woman with a will of steel, a passion for victory and a thirst for Justice…

The woman name was: Jane Shepard…Commander in the System Alliance Military and the first human to become a Specter, the arm of the Citadel Council.

Cortana was happy by learning that, she firstly thought that all humans of this galaxy were just push-overs but this damn soldier certainly proved her wrong. She, alongside a team composed of aliens has been able to show of what humanity was capable of (and the fact that a girl did it certainly made her a little happier about that).

But in the commander report, she mentioned that the Dreadnought was not Geth made but was in fact a giant-space robot who wanted to kill every sentient being in the galaxy by calling his buddy over! (Her own word in the report.)

Thankfully, she did write a more accurate report with all of her discoveries listed in from the beginning.

From the beacon found on Eden Prime and the fate of the Protheans and of the thousands of species before them. The Reapers and their cycles, the Geths being manipulated by those old machines to wage war against the organics and the soon returns of the Reaper.

At the end of the report, the commander asked the Council and every galactic power to abide the treaty of Farixen, and converge each possible resource in a galactic fleet of Dreadnoughts.

However, Shepard never got any answers for this, as she died one month later with the destruction of her ship, the Normandy by an unknown ship.

And with Shepard death, the council stopped its preparation for the upcoming war…A very grave mistake.

Furthermore, it seemed that Mankind had other threat to clears first.

Since months now, many humans' colonies were attacked by an unknown enemy and every of its citizens were abducted. And the System Alliance, as those weren't of its colonies didn't act to defend them, or at least try to relocate them in a more defended area of space.

But, it did seem that the Alliance wasn't the only one caring about the wellbeing of humanity.

A human-survivalist paramilitary group named Cerberus seemed to have taken some actions to protect the colonists and found the missing one.

To Cortana, that a group, labeled as a terrorist one is actually humanity best options was quite depressing.

But, Cerberus and the Alliance weren't humanity only hope anymore…Not since a failed space jumps.

Now, the humans could count on another group to protect them: The UNSC.

Everything in Cortana told her to do everything to protect those humans, even if they weren't from her galaxy, to know that billions of innocents live were in dangers was enough for her.

However, she would never act without the permission of her best friend, John. But she feared that he would refuse. Not that he wanted to see them die or didn't care about them. But because if they were actually fighting the reapers, then their return in their true space would be delayed by a long time.

Which is something that he would certainly not appreciate at all.

But as she would never act without him she needed to ask him…Now.

Cortana holographic form appeared on the panel situated inside the canteen and almost immediately after, John who was actually eating a lemon-flavored vitamin bars, spate it and quickly reached for his helmet who was resting beside him and put it on.

"Cortana!? What's going-"

"Chief! What did I say about paranoia? It's good only when you're at war! Or people find you weird."She mimicked a mom grounding her poor little boy.

"Cortana…"

"Right, right…Chief, I would like to update you on our situation here and…of a new development that occurred."

The Spartan titled his head on the side at confusion to her sentence but didn't do any sign to stop her.

"Well Spartan, you see, I just collected and checked DATA coming from our probes and…We may have to act."

...

* * *

...

 _In a Cerberus facility_

 _Unknown location_

Jane Shepard wasn't having a very good day for now.

As soon as she woke, she got shouted at by an angry voice, who told her to grab a gun because her life was in danger.

Jane didn't forget about her thought when she was on the table and woke up. She was dead and now came back to life…Furthermore she remembered too well about choking in her space-suit when she was ejected from her crashing ship after being attacked by an unknown enemy ship.

They weren't agreeable thoughts and so after checking her newly found gun she began to search for an exit.

And what did she get? Killing robots, all over again…Luckily for her, it seemed that her aim and her biotic ability weren't diminished by her long sleep.

And when she finally did find another human being, who had for name Jacob Taylor, he quickly told her about her situation.

Cerberus…She was in a Cerberus station.

But her disbelief quickly disappeared as survival was the most important and with her unexpected ally managed to get into safety.

But that didn't mean that her surprises were over.

As she met Miranda Lawson, the one responsible for her revival, she shoots down one Cerberus scientist turned traitor right before her which did shock Shepard.

Then, while travelling into a super-secret-Cerberus place, she was given a quick psychological and memories check up by her two (for now) allies…Those who were actually working for terrorist and shot down in cold blood a human being were actually giving her a psychological test.

And now she was sitting on a bench in the space station that they landed in, trying to find her mark in this strange place.

She was holding her head with her hands as she thought about what happened to her recently…Well if two whole years can be counted as recently.

First, she dies; Two she _wakes up_ two damn years later; Three she destroys robots and finally Four; she will meet the Leader of the terrorist organization Cerberus, who rebuilt her: The Illusive Man.

He was the most wanted human in the whole galaxy; a prime of forty millions of Credits was given for the location of his operating base. He was the leader of one of the most feared organization in the whole galaxy and didn't hesitate to annihilate his enemy.

And that guy did pay to rebuild her?

She never really has been on a mission against Cerberus, but she did have killed a few of his guys and put down a few of their experiments. Which mean that normally he shouldn't really like her…So why?

She thought back of her travel toward this station, Miranda has mentioned that Humanity was under attack.

 _"I do really hope that this is not what I think…. The reapers!"_

Jane tried to convince herself that after Sovereign, the Galactic Government took the necessary measure against this threat…But doubt existed within her which wasn't the greatest things to have right now.

She felt eyes on hers and raised her head, some strand of hair covered her eyes as she did that but she did manage to spot the spies…

The spies being two Cerberus guards who looked nervously at her and by seeing her moves turned their back and whispered not so quietly to each other.

"It's really her? It's Jane Shepard?"

"It seems so. Damn, she looks so dangerous."

"Now, we have a change to fight. Mankind shall prevail."

A small smile appeared on Jane face, she did kill some of their colleague but they still viewed her as a hero…

 _"Weir-doooo!"_

"Shepard!" A feminine but strict voice interpellated the commander who looked back.

"Yes, Miranda?"

The Illusive Man is ready to receive you, follow me please.

And with that she goes up and followed her newfound ally…for now.

...

* * *

...

Cortana didn't like it.

It has been one half-hour since she told the Chief about the reaper menace on this version of their galaxy, and just as she finished her long rant, he immediately got up and grabbed his MA5C that was lying on a table beside him.

As soon he had the powerful assault rifle in his hand, he began to dismount and remount the weapon, just like he usually does when he is bored and that there is no room to train, at first he did it the fasted he could and trying to beat his record...but rapidly he became slower, the objective of beating his records quickly forgotten.

On the contrary, he took all of his time place the different component of the AR, to the point where it took him five whole minutes to do it.

An unimaginable time for a Spartan II.

Cortana watches him do this for quite a long time, she wanted to interrupt him but she knew that he was actually processing the whole thing and judged good to not bother him.

She just hoped that he would come down to a decision soon...

John-117 was well immersed within his thought, focused both on the decision he had to make and of the firearm that was actually dancing within his hands.

 _"To fight or to flee? That is if I do choose to flee then; the inhabitant of this universe would lose something that could be very useful in the war effort against those genocidal machines."_

 _"But...if I choose to stay, then it would be betraying the UNSC, and the people I left behind on their own, the war against the covenant is certainly over, but rebellions has probably erupted in every human-controlled colonies, the UEG will have a lot of trouble to maintain order, furthermore even if they now have an alliance with the Elites, that don't mean that some aliens factions would not stop their fight against mankind."_

He saissied another components

 _"No, I simply cannot let them fight alone..."_

He inserted it, a small _click_ signifying that it was locked.

 _"But another matter should be considered...the mean of simply going home."_

He grabbed a long piece of titanium.

 _"By what Cortana told me, the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine has been greatly damaged by the jump, furthermore the control center of the Dawn had been cut off, even if Cortana does have the schematics to build a new Shaw-Fujikawa and able to restore the Dawn in its integrity, it would take months and a considerable amount of resources to complete it."_

And inserted it.

 _"And that was only the beginning of the jouney, because even if we gained a perfectly working Translight Engine, then we would need to recreate the same type of portal that the Ark used created to jump through dimension and find our own..."_

There it would take years to achieve that...and from what his AI told him, they didn't have that much time with them.

Cortana estimation for the Return of the reapers are between six to 36 months...which means that they had work to do estimated to at the least five years to three years at best and six months at worst...No, time was certainly not on their side.

 _"But another option could be made...Cortana estimation was that this cycle, by the state the galaxy is in, shouldn't be too long, from Ten to twenty years...During that time, after having repaired the Dawn in some effective manner, I could go in a cryo-sleep, going in an unmapped sector of the galaxy, wait until the end of the cycle, before finally taking over the resources that would be to their disposition and then-"_

John got up abruptly off the table, letting the pieces of the weapon that he was assembling, fall on it.

 _"Acting like that would be inhuman and cowardly, I would rather fire a bullet through my head then to let the Earth burn with her people on it and-"_ There again, he stopped his train of through, and concentrate back on only one in particularly.

 _"Earth..."_

He quickly, got toward a panel that stood near the one Cortana appeared on and quickly activated it.

"Cortana!"

"Yes, John?"

"I want every data that you collected on Earth, the system Alliance force and of all human colonies, even the one who aren't under the UEG control...And I want the most recent picture of the Earth that you got too."

"On it soldier."

He waited for a few second before that files began to appears on the holographic screen.

Report of the agricultural from the colonies, numbers of warship in the Alliance, galactic map of their patrols...

Then it appeared one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

A planet.

A blue planet...

A blue planet that was actually the home world of his species...

The Earth.

The data that Cortana sent to him was actually an holographic picture in 3d showing the blue world...And with tender movement, the Spartan, put his armored finger under the globe, the interaction making the world move upward.

He continued to check on this blue sphere with wonder for a long moment.

 _"This is not my Earth..."_

Then, words from a distant memory came back

 _"I swear to protect Earth and her colonies."_

He looked at it again.

 _"But I will fight for her."_

"Cortana, send me everything we know about those Reapers, I want to know everything about them, their strengths, weakness, and how they can control living beings."

The smart AI smiled to the decision that her partner in crime choose.

But still she couldn't resist teasing him a little bit.

"And why that? My dear little soldier?" He walked to the table where he left his unfinished business, and then he grabbed the remaining piece of the MA5C and reassembled his weapon.

"We are going to war, Cortana, and I want to know everything about our enemies."

...

* * *

...

"I brought you back. It's up to you to do the rest." As soon TIM finished this sentence, his holographic representation began to fade and Jane Shepard walked out of the room.

 _"Here we go, again…Giant robotic-squids are coming to destroy every sentient life in the galaxy and it seems that no one batters an eye and tries to find a solution…"_

The commander was actually very confused, the Illusive Man just told her the reason why he did bring her back from the dead, and this reason was quite;

Mankind was in danger…once again.

Even though she knew she couldn't really trust someone like TIM, she was pretty worried about what he said.

" _Entire human colonies are disappearing and the Alliance is doing nothing? And the Citadel Council? Couldn't they just send patrols to protect those colonies…No…If what TIM said is true and that they are Terminus colonies then the council will never act as they aren't under their jurisdiction."_

She walked back to the stairs toward where she left her companions.

 _"But the Alliance…they must know that something is wrong with those disappearances, even if they aren't Reapers related, they are still a threat to civilians, they are surely preparing something for that."_

As she arrived on the desired level, her eyes met with their reflection as she was beside a reflective glass.

 _"But, if they aren't…then I must act, I can stay with Cerberus for some time, check if they are right, if not then I will leave to find Anderson, he will surely listen to me, him."_

This reflection brought a smile back on her face, before a frown came back.

 _"Still, Cerberus brought me back…It wouldn't hurt to not show teeth at them for a short time."_

She saw Miranda came toward her and stopping not even a meter from her.

"The shuttle is ready for Freedom's Progress; we should be there in not even one hour."

"Understood."

Shepard followed Miranda toward the docking bay, but even the new mission that was dropped upon her couldn't stop her mind to swirl with questions about her entourage…

...

* * *

...

Chief looked back, staring at the emptiness of space through the observation window of the hallway he was actually crossing, repair material carried by his powerful hands.

He couldn't help but feel attracted toward this particular point in space, like if someone was giving him a sign...

He waited for a few minutes, waiting for something that he knew wouldn't appear when his friend voice appeared on his com.

 **"Chief, to the control room, quick!"**

She hadn't even finished her sentence that the Spartan was already running thought the station toward the desired location.

Once there, a worried looking Cortana was staring at him.

"Chief, I just picked up two signals not that far, it's-"

"-The Quarians ? Did the Fleet find us?"The Spartan" grimaced, even if the Dawn still had a few usable weapons, it was not sufficient to fight off an enemy that could deploy one thousand battleships with ease.

And the station armament had not been maintained for the last three hundred years and so not in conditions to be used in a space battle.

But Cortana quickly put a term to his worries.

"It is not the Fleet Chief, but its Quarian made...It seem that i have managed to pick two distress signals."

"Distress signal? A trap?"

"I don't think so... I think more that its coming from two pilgrims...The area the signals are coming from, is under pirates control, a small group, named Ortasis...They are probably in need against those bad boys."

"Did the Fleet receive it?"

"No, the Fleet is too far away to pick it up, and even if they did, it will be too late for those young adventurers..."

"What are the options?"

"Well, I do see three options:

The first one, we ignore it and simply go away.

The second, we redirect the signal toward the Migrant Fleet or a Turian patrol, but in the first case they will surely get too late and the second would probably just ignore it."

"And the last option?"

Cortana face, now adorned a brilliant smile.

"Well, you hadn't been active for quite a time now...Don't you think it's time for you to do some real work."

She couldn't see his face thought the visor, but knew that he was smiling.

"Direct us toward those signal, while that I get a Pelican ready to fly."

...

* * *

...

 _Planet C35-42 NAO_

 _Ortasis base on the planet_

"So, suit rats, how does it feel to be in the true galaxy? And not in some shit-vessel made of trash."

Talo vas drumi, simply glanced to his Batarian captor through his visor, the four-eyed alien simply walked away with rash laugh.

Once out of vision, the captured Quarian turned his head to check on his fellow Quarian that was attached to a pipe.

"Well, it doesn't look very good for us..."

"You're right Jori...it does seem that the fleet will be short of two Quarians ..."

Both of them have been on the same colony when they have been captured, they worked together as mechanics for a salarian who repaired ships, in exchange of some food and then, after six months of labors, two repaired ships for their pilgrim gifts.

But as their contract came to an end, their employer didn't seem to be interested in giving two ships as promised.

So, he did like a very civilized being would do when confronted with a hard choice...He sold them to a gang of slave traffickers for one thousand credits each.

"Do you think that they will exchange us for money?"

"No, I don't think so...it does seem that instead they will keep us as slave to repair their machines"

"Slaves...-"repeated Jori slowly" -are we actually losing our freedom to some shitty pirates..."

"Well, there may be another way." Responded Talo.

"That is?"

Talo put his hand under a fold of his suit and showed a small hidden knife...

"You want us to try to escape?"

"No, there are too many of them and they are too much armed...I was more thinking about us..."

The realization those words came to Jori like a wave, but strangely enough he did not have any disgust toward it.

Killing themselves seemed like a good choice...after all, as long they were captive, they were a threat to the Migrant Fleet, and none of them were okay with that.

Talo then heard voices coming their way and quickly hide the knife into his suit; the same batarian as before arrived in the room while being in an argument with some of his soldier in his com.

"How is there an intrusion? Stop drinking you idiot! Our Eezo scanner didn't detect anything. Just stop f*** around and go back to your post!"

He turned off his com link and turned around to face the duo of Quarians, :"Excuse me for making you wait that long, I had to discuss with my stupid subordinate, so...where were we?"

He advanced toward them, before advancing toward Jori.

"So, you wanted to visit the galaxy…to become real men. To get back home proud and victorious against adversity, to show that you were worth of existing. That's it?"

Both migrants send him glance filled with venom.

The captor chuckled on this pitiful display of courage and kneeled down near them.

"You know, there something that I have always desired...I have this strange fetish on Quarian since some time now..."

He let one of his fingers; slowly slide on Jori's helmet.

"Since I saw pictures of your females, I have always wanted to make one them squirm under my touch..."

His hand was now on Jori's waist...the Quarian respiration became faster.

"But I have never managed to get one...but, I must say, that even your males look quite feminine."

His hand was now fully grabbing Jori's legs that flinched under the pressure on him; Talo was ready to sort out his knife to kill their captor and defend his friend.

But something stopped all of their action, as the intercom of the base came to life: **" alert, there is an intruder in the base, everyone, grab your guns and -AAAAAH!"**

The line got cut.

The batarian, quickly got up, going toward the room entrance when three other pirates came from the door situated on the other side of the room.

"What the f*** is going?!" Asked a Turian.

"Some fu***rs intruded the base, and killed our men in the controls room, ready and point your damn guns on the door. The control room is not that far and so, they will come here!"

Totally ignored, the Quarians watched as the four pirates put themselves in a small demi circle, with their weapon pointed toward the door.

The group was composed of two batarians, one turian and one salarian, this one being the only engineers among the soldiers.

Whoever intruded this base was doomed as they saw those hardened pirates, prepared for battle.

However, as seconds passed, they grow a little more nervous as loud gunfire could be heard being shoot, they could not identify the weapon used but it seemed to be pretty powerful if the noise made was of any indication.

But a few moments later, the holographic panel in the room turned green, sign that someone was actually pushing the opening button on the other side of the door.

But it didn't open, the panel still green colored indicated that someone was still pushing the button and didn't release it, keeping the door from getting opened.

The lead batarian murmured a damn coward and made a quick sign to the engineer who quickly nodded.

With a flick, he activated his Omni-tool then after poking a few buttons opened the door.

The first sight they got as the door was finally open was a human member of their crew, who had his throat sliced; his body has been positioned so that his hand was actually pushing the holographic panel.

But with the opening of the door, whatever was keeping him from collapsing disappeared and felled face down toward the dirty floor.

But what the remaining pirate didn't see in time were the two grenades that were attached to the former pirate belt and just got liberated.

 **"GRENAAADEES!- "** Shouter the turian soldier but the high explosive grenades detonated ,sending their murderous shrapnel away.

Talo and Jori, being far enough of the explosion managed to get away unharmed, but that wasn't the case of their captors.

To their joy, the batarian leader had half of his face blow away, each of his remaining eyes have been busted. The second batarian , has been propelled away by the explosion, and his back and neck has met the wall breaking them straight away.

The salarian, had a better shield and armor and had been able to get away alive somehow in good state...if losing your left hand is a good state.

The turian, by being the first to see the grenade is able to jump up, with his rifle leveled and walking toward his screaming companion, who clutched his wound with his other hand.

"Damn, what the f*** is happening he-" but he never got to finish his sentence as a figure came from the other side of the door.

The pirate aimed his rifle toward his target but wasn't fast enough. As the form leveled up his own weapon and fired in a record time.

To John-117 it was pretty slow, he just got inside the room, located the enemies, raised his MA5C and fired five shots.

He has already experimented on the others pirates of the base, the majority of the armor is in a bad state and weak shielding as they weren't part of a great pirate organization like the Blue sun or Eclipse.

He only needed two bullets to disactivate the shield, two for the armor and one for the killing.

 _"It seems that the MA5C wasn't getting outdated any time soon as if used well a single magazine could kill four to six targets."_

He saw movement on his motion tracker that alerted him of the salarian attempting to shoot at him as he pulled out a secondary gun, but the Spartan acted just as expected of him, he apprehends the remaining hand of his adversary and squished it with his armored one.

The pirate hurled in pain and felled to his knees, but he managed to raise his head, truly facing his enemy for the first time.

And the vision of and gigantic armored soldier only send a message to him.

 **"De-Demon!"**

A burst of 7,62mm was his only response.

"It's already the third that called you like that, it seems that this surname will stick around, isn't it?" Said Cortana to her partner in crime in their private com.

"Stop joking around; we are on a rescue mission." The Behemoth saw movement on his Motion Tracker and found a presence behind him and quickly turns around, the canon of his assault rifle, facing two frightened Quarians, who if they could, would raise their hands.

The Spartan would have lowered his weapon, but, the he couldn't rest yet, he as he picked up fast movement coming to his direction with his movement tracker, the running sound seemed to confirm it.

He checked his remaining ammo on the magazine:

 _ **16**_

Or three enemies…

But the motion tracker showed that at least five enemies were coming this way.

 _"Time for a more appropriate answer."_ He switched the assault rifle for the shotgun that was waiting on his back.

The M90A CAWS held firmly in his hands, he got back into the room he just left and waited for his foes to come…And they came right after him.

The first adversary that showed up was one of those blue aliens' ladies, that Cortana referred as an Asari, they could use biotic powers that if, underestimated could cause a lot of damages.

 _"Lucky for me that Cortana briefed me on them."_

The mighty Spartan stood his ground and let the Asari take the first strike.

She readied her weapon, a sort of glowing sword and suddenly propelled herself in a blue flash and unleashed her sword against him.

And even if she looked like and experienced combatant, she didn't though about meeting a warrior that had a shield that could hold up to her strike.

To her defense, the energetic shield of the Mjolnir Armor did go down about one fifth.

However, her Kinetic Barriers hadn't resisted the shell of 8 Gauge fired by her opponent, sending her flying three meters away, the torso filled with pellets and a face that showed her surprise in her last moments alive.

As she fell, the Master Chief, readied another shell and faced another enemy.

Meanwhile the two imprisoned quarian were actively trying to break free from their restraints.

"Come on, come on I feel it." Talo had put his knife into the magnetic lock, trying to break it.

"Come, the fighting seems to be intensifying, it could be our only chance to get out."

" **Shut up!** What do you think that I am-" he got interrupted by the snapping sound of the lock. He quickly discarded his restrain before he began to work on his companion handcuff.

"Ok, I will-"But he was again interrupted. Only this time it was by a very loud sound coming from behind him.

The sound coming from a heavy object landing at fast speed.

He turned back and saw the green armored soldier that came earlier, on the ground, but he did manage to get back up surprisingly fast…Just in time to dodge a raging krogan.

The krogan seemed to have entered into a bloodlust as he kept charging toward his foe while roaring.

The human warrior him reacted by giving to the giant-sized lizard a kick with the butt of his weapon straight to the face.

But even if that did slow down the pirate, that didn't deter his determination at all he engaged the green soldier in close combat.

Now that the two fighting Titans were so closer, Talo could see blood all over the krogan body, coming from many little wounds that was probably obtained by a very powerful shotgun.

But even that didn't suffice to erase the wrecked smile on the Krogan face that seemed to be having the time of his life by fighting a mighty opponent.

But something else surprised and scared Talo at the same time, the Krogan was actually losing this fight.

A krogan pirate, an experienced soldier who possessed one of the best bodies with great capacity in the whole galaxy, was actually losing a hand to hand fight…

 _Unbelievable._

Talo was out from his stupor as he heard a clicking sound behind him.

As he turned he saw something that didn't seemed good at all.

A turian pirate had arrived from the other entrance and was actually aiming a rocket launcher toward the two fighters, apparently not caring that he would blow up an ally.

Talo, knew that the warrior on green apparently was on their side, as he didn't mean any harm to him or Jori as he didn't shoot them when he could and was actually fighting their enemies.

Furthermore he was their only hope of freedom and survival in this base.

But while he was certainly strong, he couldn't resist to a rocket.

So Talo acted.

The pirate was aiming toward the big lizard and his opponent, ready to fire.

Don't move that much or I will not be able to-

He felt something interrupt his some internal rant, a quarian who throw himself at him, making him let go of the explosive weapon.

"You damn suit rat!" He punched the migrant in the guts, making him kneel in pain.

"You are nothing but a waste of space!" He grabbed the Quarian by the throat to make him stand at his level, and then he revealed a big combat knife from his back.

"It's time to put a term to that." He pushed the knife deep into the Quarian's belly.

 **"AAAAAAAAAHHH!"**

The turian smirked before retiring his weapon slowly, and as he was on the point to repeat the procedure, something interrupted him.

A bullet of 12,7x40mm, type semi-armor piercing goes through his head.

As the pirate felled, Talo send a glance to his right, there, was standing over a beaten to death Krogan, the green armored soldier who looked at him, a fuming pistol within his left hand.

The two of them, glance at each other behind their respective visor for a few moment when pain finally kicked in.

The wounded Quarian felled on his back, the world around getting blurrier by the seconds, he could he running noise, and then after what seemed eternity, Jori's visor appeared in front of him, apparently, he did manage to break that damn lock, and now troubled word were accompanying him.

 **"No, stay awake! Stay focused on my voice, keep your damn eyes open and stare at me Damnit!"**

Talo could hear another voice, not that far away, but this time it was his translator that did the work for him.

"Cortana, we have a wounded, get a sterile room ready on the station, we will evacuate now."

Then darkness enveloped his whole world.

End of the Chapter 4

...

* * *

...

 **And so, the fourth came to an end... That's sad isn't it?**

 **Well as you can see, the first contact between the UNSC and the council species did go pretty well, an intense exchange of culture has happened, which will lead only to better thing in the future, lie bigger firefight, bigger explosion and bigger warship…and all of that in the name of peace…**

 **As you could see, and Shepard will finally have some actions soon, just let her some time to wake up.**

 **She just got back from a sleep that lasted for two years, and she is quite destabilized for now.**

 **I'm sorry that MC has more of the time of the show, but it should be more equitable in a few chapter, but first I want to show the two aliens arrival and adaptations in this new universe, while that for Shepard ,we already know in which general direction it go.**

 **By the way, does anybody know why, during MASS EFFECT 2, when questioned by the Alliance, the Council and even some of his/her friends, ask Shepard where he was during this time he respond that he was sleeping for two years or in a comatose state…But he rarely say that he was dead?**

 **Generally, people cannot get angry at you if when you couldn't show you were dead…So …Why?**

 **With my best regard, and my thanks for reading this story**

 **Imp45**

 **Next update: Well last time I said 15 days and it took three months so…But normally during April…2029**


End file.
